D-Wave Wins More Funding For Quantum Computing Push

D-Wave Systems, which has been developing a radically different kind of computer since 1999, has installed a grand total of two systems outside its premises. But management, and investors, seem undaunted.

The Vancouver-based company said Friday it has landed a new infusion of 30 million Canadian dollars ($28 million) from investors that include Goldman Sachs. D-Wave says it has raised 160 million Canadian dollars ($149 million) over the years in a half-dozen funding rounds.

Prior investors have included an investment vehicle for Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos and In-Q-Tel, a venture fund that invests on behalf of the U.S. intelligence community.

D-Wave has also attracted considerable media attention–including a Time magazine cover story–for its quest to develop what scientists call a quantum computer, a term derived from the unusual behavior of sub-atomic particles and energy. Where conventional computers store bits of data expressed as either ones or zeroes, quantum theorists talk of “qubits” that can be a one, a zero or both at the same time.

Those and other attributes of quantum computers, proponents say, can consider and manipulate all combinations of bits simultaneously, completing some kinds of calculations at extremely high speed.

D-Wave has long had to cope with arguments in the scientific community over whether its machine is really a quantum computer. More recently, scientific papers based on studies of D-Wave’s technology have come to conflicting conclusions about whether it really offers significant speed advantages.

There is no dispute that D-Wave’s machines are very different. They are based on internally designed computer chips that are cooled to near absolute zero–minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit–-and are carefully shielded to avoid interference from magnetic radiation that could disrupt their operation.

One of the two machines shipped so far was ordered by Lockheed Martin–a system installed at a University of Southern California facility–and the other is being used in a collaboration between Google and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Vern Brownell, D-Wave’s chief executive, predicts the sales activity will accelerate considerably this year as the company delivers a new generation of machines featuring 1,000 qubits rather than 512. He predicts two systems will be shipped this year to customers he did not identify.

D-Wave doesn’t talk much about the price tag of its machines, but Brownell acknowledges they are expensive enough that the company could run profitably on just a few more system sales. “This is a big-ticket expenditure,” he says.

Selling, though, is a bit of a misnomer. “We don’t really sell machines outright,” Brownell says. Even the installations involving Lockheed and Google “are really rentals with a services agreement,” he said.

Indeed, D-Wave expects to get much of its revenue over time from operating the machines and essentially renting the use of them over the Internet, generating steady revenue rather than the “lumpy” results common to sellers of big supercomputers like Cray (which announced a $174 million order for a single system Thursday).

Brownell said the new investment will go largely to hire software talent and engineers to help customers use the esoteric technology.

“We are really at this dawn of the age of quantum computing, and we are excited to be there,” Brownell said.